Monday, August 31st We had a great nights sleep with no sign of angry villagers, flaming torches or pitchforks. After breakfast we set off for Dunedin city centre. Just outside of Long Beach we saw a dead female possum lying in the road. It was sad, not just because they're so cute, but also because we could see her baby's legs sticking out of her pouch. Yeah, we know there are more than 70 million of them in NZ and they're a huge pest, but they're still cute. Once in the city we found an internet shop to backup our pictures to DVD, then went in search of the Cadbury factory. There are guided tours through the factory and this place is probably as close as Talita could come to heaven on earth. We booked ourselves ... read more

Tuesday, August 25th Our target for today was to reach Hanmer Springs, about two hours from Kaikoura. It's an adventure hub like a mini Queenstown in the sense that there's snowboarding, jet-boating, bungy-jumping, rafting, hiking and thermal pools. It sounded like our kinda place so we got an early start. We had a great time driving through the beautiful country side. Luckily there was almost no traffic because we were going pretty slow, babbling and listening to music. We reached Hanmer Springs and immediately liked it. It's a little Alpine village with great views and a slow pace. It was sunny and warm, but the wind was blowing something fierce. We got a camping spot just outside of town and after an early lunch we drove in search of a few hiking trails. We were feeling ... read more

Thursday, August 20th We slept late and when Clive and Lize left for work, Luki (real name Tululah, aka Lulu) came crawling into bed with us. After a shower and breakfast Ferdi made a few calls. One of these was to the NZ police in Wellington to book fingerprinting. The first officer he spoke to started speaking Afrikaans to him the moment he mentioned fingerprints. Was Ferdi's accent that bad or did the officer just make a lucky guess? Either way, Ferdi was put through to the right department and booked the fingerprints for tomorrow at noon. Lize and Clive have a beautiful house in Brooklyn, just outside the city. It's nice and roomy and the interior is light with a lot of warm wood. Plus there's Luki, who runs the household and is very cute. ... read more

Friday, August 14th Happy birthday boeda Konrad! We wish we could be there to share your 30th with you! May God bless you and grant you happiness and peace on this special day, and also in the years to come. We got up early, packed our van, had a quick breakfast, said goodbye to Nicol, Mel and little Keira, and then braved the morning traffic into Auckland city. It wasn't as bad as we’d expected (not to say that it was great). Emily took us right to our destination in Mt Eden where Ferdi had a meeting set up. We arrived early and after planning our route to Mt Ruapehu we enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate while we waited for the meeting time to arrive. At 9am Ferdi met Jeff from Starfish Pictures and they had ... read more

Friday, August 7th We woke to a misty morning in Clarks Beach, but soon the sun came out and the day turned into a beaut. We checked out late, asked Emily for directions to a certain post-office in Manakau and drove there to drop off the "guitar". It was the office the "guitar" was sent from (and on the way back to Auckland), so we didn't have to pay any postage fees for returning it. We decided against murdering it in the hopes that it will be replaced by a working specimen or, even better, a refund. With that done we drove to Piha. We still had some cold symptoms so didn't want to go and infect Nicol, Mel or Keira. Later they phoned and said that they were ill anyway so we could visit without ... read more